Washington Post Stirs Fear After False Report of Power Grid Hack by Russia

[HAPPY2BME]

Story quickly falls apart after investigation finds claims to be inaccurate

 Mikael Thalen | Infowars.com - December 30, 2016

The Washington Post reported Friday that the U.S. power grid had been hacked by the same Russian actors accused of breaching the DNC – the only problem, the grid wasn’t hacked.

Soon after publication of the Post’s story, it was revealed that the malware had only infected a utility company laptop that had no access whatsoever to the electrical grid.

The Post’s false hacking story, which continues to be spread by countless media outlets, will likely fuel both fear and distrust as allegations of government hacking continue to captivate the public.

While the U.S. intelligence community leads the world in hacking capabilities, America remains one of the more vulnerable countries given its reliance on technology.

http://www.infowars.com/washington-post-stirs-fear-after-false-report-of-power-grid-hack-by-russia/

[HAPPY2BME]

Something About This Russia Story Stinks

Nearly a decade and a half after the Iraq-WMD faceplant, the American press is again asked to co-sign a dubious intelligence assessment

In an extraordinary development Thursday, the Obama administration announced a series of sanctions against Russia. Thirty-five Russian nationals will be expelled from the country. President Obama issued a terse statement seeming to blame Russia for the hack of the Democratic National Committee emails.

"These data theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government," he wrote.

The New York Times was more aggressive, writing flatly, "Obama Strikes Back at Russia for Election Hacking." It backed up its story with a link to a joint FBI/Homeland Security report that details how Russian civilian and military intelligence services (termed "RIS" in the report) twice breached the defenses of "a U.S. political party," presumably the Democrats.

This report is long on jargon but short on specifics. More than half of it is just a list of suggestions for preventive measures.

Adding to the problem is that in the last months of the campaign, and also in the time since the election, we've seen an epidemic of factually loose, clearly politically motivated reporting about Russia. Democrat-leaning pundits have been unnervingly quick to use phrases like "Russia hacked the election."

We ought to have learned from the Judith Miller episode. Not only do governments lie, they won't hesitate to burn news agencies. In a desperate moment, they'll use any sucker they can find to get a point across.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/something-about-this-russia-story-stinks-w458439

[thundley4]

Whoever controls that laptop has been connecting to unsecure networks and probably fell victim to a phishing scheme through email They really wanted to see those naked pics of Hillary.

[FaC]

Whoever controls that laptop has been connecting to unsecure networks and probably fell victim to a phishing scheme through email They really wanted to see those naked pics of Hillary.

Eeww - What has been imagined cannot be un-imagined 

[HAPPY2BME]

DHS: No Evidence Hackers Infected Vermont Power Grid…

Via Politico:

    Federal authorities see no signs that hackers breached Vermont’s electric grid using suspected Russian malware that infected a power company’s laptop, the Department of Homeland Security said tonight.

    “While our analysis continues, we currently have no information that indicates that the power grid was penetrated in this cyber incident,” J. Todd Breasseale, DHS’s assistant secretary for public affairs, told POLITICO in a statement.

    The discovery of the malware, first reported Friday by The Washington Post, inspired immediate concern that suspected Russian cyber-assaults against the United States had spread to the electric power supply, one of the nation’s most sensitive potential targets. But the Burlington Electric Department, a city-owned utility, later clarified that the laptop had not been connected to the power system.

    DHS confirmed this assessment in its statement today, although it offered no further details about where the malware might have originated or what the hackers who placed it may have been trying to do.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/vermont-power-grid-hackers-233091